Saturday, January 10, 2015

Lost in the Parisian turmoil have been recent speeches by
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Evidently, the world’s attention is more easily transfixed
by the dramas of mass murder and hostage taking, but at a time when the world
needs, more than anything, a Muslim leader who can move his co-religionists
away from terror and toward modernity, President Sisi is stepping forth.

Egypt’s
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made an extraordinary
speech on New Year’s Day to Cairo’s Al-Azhar and the Awqaf Ministry
calling for a long overdue virtual ecclesiastical revolution in Islam.
This is something no Western leader has the had the courage to do,
certainly not Barack Obama, despite his Muslim education.

Accusing
the umma (world
Islamic population) of encouraging the hostility of the entire world, al-Sisi’s
speech is so dramatic and essentially revolutionary it brings to mind
Khrushchev’s famous speech exposing Stalin. Many have called for a reformation
of Islam, but for the leader of the largest Arab nation to do so has
world-changing implications.

I am referring here to the religious
clerics. We have to think hard about what we are facing—and I have,
in fact, addressed
this topic a couple of times before. It’s inconceivable that
the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire umma [Islamic
world] to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest
of the world. Impossible!

That thinking—I am not saying “religion” but
“thinking”—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the
years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is
antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!

Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims]
should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants—that is 7 billion—so
that they themselves may live? Impossible!

All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel
it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of
yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened
perspective.

I say and repeat again that we are in need of a
religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. The entire
world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because
this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and
it is being lost by our own hands. [bolds mine]

I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before
this assembly of scholars and ulema—Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on
Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.

Next, to make clear his vision
for a new Egypt, Sisi visited a Coptic Christian Church and was shown to be
warmly greeting the Israeli ambassador to Egypt.

In a country where Anwar Sadat
was assassinated for making peace with Israel, Sisi was showing exemplary
courage.

For the first time ever, Coptic Christians in
Egypt were able to greet the president of their country on the most important
holiday of their faith.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is the first
Egyptian leader ever to attend Christmas mass at Cairo’s Abbasiya Cathedral,
where he greeted Coptic Christians in a speech.

Sisi’s attendance at the religious service was
preceded by a heavy security presence, especially due to prior attacks on
Christian sites by radical Islamists.

The president congratulated Egypt’s Coptic
community on the occasion of the holiday, and maintained that all Egyptians are
as “one hand.”

Naturally, President Sisi is not the Obama administration’s
favorite Muslim. An administration that welcomed the election of Muslim
Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi with open arms has been notably unsympathetic
to the man who overthrew him.

There is much to criticize about Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, but
he is an ally in the ongoing struggle against Islamist terrorism.
Surely, his statements are far, far better than those of Barack Obama
and French president Hollande—neither of who are capable of placing blame with
Islam at all.

The New York Times, viscerally anti-military-- outdid them
in October, standing up for the Muslim Brotherhood and showering Sisi with
contempt:

The Times editorialized:

Since
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took control in Egypt though a military coup in July 2013, the country has returned to
its authoritarian moorings by jailing political opponents, silencing critics
and vilifying peaceful Islamists.

Leaders
of the Muslim Brotherhood, which became the leading political movement in the
wake of Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising, are languishing in prison, unfairly branded as terrorists.
That has left a large generation of Brotherhood supporters rudderless, raising
the possibility that some will be drawn to militancy. Just when the United
States is battling Sunni extremists in Iraq and Syria, seeking to isolate the
terrorist group known as the Islamic State, Egypt’s crushing authoritarianism
could well persuade a significant number of its citizens that violence is the
only tool they have for fighting back.

Egypt
today is in many ways more repressive than it was during the darkest periods of
the reign of deposed strongman Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Sisi’s government has cracked
down on demonstrations, tightened control of state media and prosecuted
journalists. A new, vaguely worded law will soon stiffen
penalties for individuals who receive foreign funding, making it a crime
punishable by life in prison. The measure, ostensibly intended to fight
terrorism, is similar to policies the state has used to suppress the work of pro-democracy organizations.

Of course, the Times does not recognize that the Muslim
Brotherhood is a terrorist organization. And naturally, it continues to traffic
in the canard that repressing terrorism will breed terrorists.

In truth, Sisi has declared war on terrorism. Fighting
Islamists is not going to be pretty. It might well require actions that offend
the delicate sensibility of the New York Times.

The Times, which is even more pusillanimous than
that of the Obama administration, favors appeasement.

If Sisi succeeds in reviving the Egyptian economy the people
who voted for him will be ill inclined to join the
world jihad.

At the
same time, Egypt’s stock market, up thirty percent, was the best bet of any for
2014, according to the Financial
Times. Does this mean Egypt is about to turn into Denmark any
time soon? Undoubtedly not. But Denmark — and a number of other
European countries — may be turning into Egypt or something worse. So all
is fair and el-Sisi is to be applauded.

As for the absurd notion that Islamic terrorists are not
Muslims or that their actions have nothing to do with their religion, the point is refuted by none other than Bill Maher.

Obviously, Maher knows something that the Obama
administration and the Times do not:

We’re
Americans so we don’t want to single out people, but when you look at that list
just since 9/11, then we had the Madrid bombings in ’04, London in ’05, Mumbai,
the Kenyan mall, Benghazi, which was one of 20 cities that erupted when that
movie Innocence of Muslims was
on the Internet, ISIS, Boko Haram who killed an entire village this week,
Pakistan last year killing all those kids at the school, Canada parliament,
Australia,” said Maher. “What we’ve said all along, and have been called bigots
for it, is when there’s this many bad apples, there’s something wrong with the
orchard.

"It might well require actions that offend the delicate sensibility of the New York Times." Only some of their sensibilities are delicate; others are angry, irritated, and highly unsuitable for children.